Efficiency and Planning Ahead
by Kalira69
Summary: Zuko and Sokka have made camp on their trip across the Fire Nation, but there's something wrong with Sokka's bedroll. . .


Written for the 'Closer' space on my **fluffbingo** card for 2019 Q2.

* * *

Sokka fidgeted and shifted a little, rustling his bedroll and knocking away a twig. Zuko turned his head and eyed Sokka dubiously. Sokka pulled a soft, innocent face and yawned, snuggling into the plush bedroll.

Zuko narrowed his eyes, but looked back up at the stars after a moment anyway.

He wasn't surprised when Sokka shifted again a short time later. He gave it a few long moments, waiting, and didn't glance over until the rustling sounds came again. Sokka was a little closer, the gap of bare earth between them narrower now.

Sokka was shimmying his entire bedroll sideways, but he stilled immediately when he glanced at Zuko and saw him watching.

"Is there something wrong with where you've laid out your bedroll?" Zuko asked dryly.

"Yes." Sokka said, and Zuko hummed inquisitively. "It's too far away!" he explained immediately, and Zuko just looked at him silently for a moment.

"You laid it out." he pointed out reasonably, only to get a look from Sokka that said he was _not understanding_.

"Aw. . . Come a little closer?" Sokka pouted theatrically at Zuko, wiggling in his bedroll.

Zuko couldn't quite stop the twitch of a smile that tugged at his lips, but shook his head a little in disbelief. "What's wrong? Can't sleep?"

"I'm cold." Sokka pouted a little harder and also scooted a bit further towards him. "You are being a very bad Fire Boyfriend right now. Isn't it your duty to warm me up?"

Zuko was silent for a moment, blinking at him. "Sokka." he said, and got a little huff in answer. "We're still in the Fire Nation." he pointed out, and Sokka crossed his arms - which didn't look very intimidating when he was trapped in his own bedroll, flopping a bit like a landed fish as he wedged his elbows into the constraints of the material. "It's _spring_."

Sokka opened his mouth, then sighed simply and flopped onto his back.

Zuko looked at his boyfriend, then shifted onto his side. "Sokka. . . Just come here." he said, trying not to laugh. Sokka hesitated, and Zuko hummed, just loud enough to carry across the - now quite small - distance between them. "Sokka."

Sokka looked over at him, and Zuko held out a hand.

Sokka scrambled sideways, rearranging his bedroll as he went, and Zuko flipped up the edge of his own in welcome, letting his boyfriend overlap them comfortably. "If you wanted to cuddle," Zuko said, reaching out and tugging Sokka down into him, "you could have just said that, you know. Making things too complicated again." he teased.

"Oh and _you_ would _never_." Sokka said petulantly, even as he was nestling in close.

Zuko let it go with a noncommittal noise and Sokka did likewise, making a contented sound as he pressed against Zuko's side.

"You know," Zuko said as he shifted, letting Sokka snuggle against him even when it earned him the brief impact of a solid shoulder to the throat, "it was _your_ idea that we not sleep together while we're on this trip."

"No idea what you mean." Sokka said against his jaw, then twisted, meeting his eyes.

Zuko's thoughts sputtered momentarily as he was caught in wide, deep blue eyes, but he recovered them quickly. "Efficiency." he quoted succinctly. "You had a whole speech about it. You were very emphatic." He hugged Sokka tightly enough to compress his ribs a little. "I believe you made a chart."

"Well. . ." Sokka sighed and clearly gave in, if only with a slightly sulky expression. "I was not being smart." he said with a mournful sigh. "_Please?_"

Zuko stiffened, sputtering, then- He stopped, catching himself. "Please _what_?" he asked, shifting a bit, his knee brushing Sokka's. "We can hardly get much closer at this point." he pointed out wryly, smoothing one hand over the small of Sokka's back.

"Aw, forgive me for trying to stay so far away?" Sokka all but crooned, _wriggling_ against Zuko's chest. "It's only . . . I didn't think I could be so _close_," he said, his hands drifting, one sliding up to rest over Zuko's heart and the other down to grab his ass, "and not _touch_ you, and _have_ you. . . Even out here."

Zuko raised his eyebrow and smirked. "We can do _that_, too." he said, tilting his hips under Sokka's hand and hauling his boyfriend closer against him, stopping just shy of kissing Sokka as his eyes widened. "But," Zuko said against his boyfriend's lips, smirk growing, "_not_ when you wake me up and then take into the depths of the night to admit you even want to be close, instead of just asking. Or _moving_."

Sokka gaped at him, then snapped his mouth shut and scowled at Zuko.

Zuko kissed him, light and sweet. "Sleep, stormlet." he said, rubbing a hand over Sokka's back. "We have to be up with the sun to keep to the schedule _you_ planned."

Sokka grumbled, but it _had_ been his schedule - and it was hardly Zuko's fault he was always up with the sun and it didn't bother him nearly so much as it had been Sokka. He smiled as he closed his eyes to sleep, though, shifting just a little, solely to feel Sokka warm and close against him, arms wrapped around him.

Zuko hummed contentedly, idly tracing a spiralling design on Sokka's back until he drifted off.


End file.
